Ever responsive to the hobbyist market, Texas Instruments is releasing a very inexpensive, very simple WiFi module specifically designed for that Internet of Things.
The TI SimpleLink TI CC3000 WiFi module is a single-chip solution to putting 802.11b/g WiFi in just about every project you can dream up. Just about everything needed to put the Internet in a microcontroller is included in this chip – there’s a TCP/IP stack included on the chip, along with all the security stuff needed to actually connect to a network.
The inexpensive micocontroller WiFi solutions we’ve seen – including the very cool Electric Imp – had difficult, or at least odd, means of putting WiFi credentials such as the SSID and password onto the device. TI is simplifying this with SmartConfig, an app running on a phone, tablet, or PC that automagically takes care of setting up a link in a wireless network.
Best of all, the CC3000 only costs $10 in quantities of 1000. Compare that to other Internet of Things WiFi solutions, and it looks like we might be seeing and easy and cheap way to connect a project to the internet this year.
This excites me.
A penny apiece? Hot damn!
Haha no, $10 a piece, if you buy a quantity of 1000. So 1000 chips costs $10,000 dollars. More each if you buy in lower quantity.
no 0$ for free sample.
product in preview only
10$ is for module, not chip
but now, modul is very basic.. can use msp430 louncpad together
I think its $10 a piece, with minimum order quantity of 1000..
My Avnet FAE yesterday told me that these would have a hard time connecting to many networks as they do not support WPA2 encryption. Anyone know what types of WLANs they will connect to? The data sheet is silent on the issue, and the other TI app. notes are a vague mentioning only WPS.
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/CC3000_First_Time_Configuration#Example-_Associating_CC3000_to_AP_with_WPA2_Security
The datasheet claims “Supports all Wi-Fi security modes for personal networks: WEP, WPA, and WPA2 with on-chip security accelerators”
http://www.ti.com/lit/ds/symlink/cc3000.pdf
Here’s hoping someone builds an arduino clone with this chip on the board. Or maybe a daughterboard for the raspberry pi :)
For the Raspberry Pi, a $10 solution is already available. (Just plug a WiFi dongle into the USB port. Current Linux distros like Raspbian alread support it.)
But since it’s from TI, I hope to see a LaunchPad booster-pack for it.
They’re way ahead of you… Check out the CC3000BOOST on the TI website :)
Backordered, $35. How many things are wrong with this, let me count them
> How many things are wrong with this, let me count them
…two?
Here’s hoping that that someone will be digikey, mouser or farnell. An arduino breakout is just going to double the price for the added value of an led and a serial interface.
In the event that Allied digikey, mouser et. al. end up stocking the modules hobbyists should happily pay twice the supply houses pay for them to be able get the modules alone in low number volumes. Not enough persons willing to pay double the cost of the module for any breakout board for the module, for a break out board can only insure that no break out boards will be made available.
These parts are available per 1k from TI. Whoever builds a breakout won’t wait for those distributors to stock them and buy from them. That would lower profit and make no sense volume-wise. The distributors don’t bulk order in that magnitude for new devices, your breakout devices won’t come from them but directly from the source.
With all that technology they still only do b/g and not n?
You need a 600Mbit wireless link for a microcontroller?
Ohhh, I get it. You just wanted to say something negative about something everyone else is (rightly) excited about.
While I agree that b/g is probably all that is necessary for a microcontroller, there are some people who have an n+ router and all n+ devices and they turn off b/g in the router. They would have to reconfigure their router to add these devices.
Then again, most of us probably have a WRT54G or equivalent hiding in a closet somewhere that could be put on the network without disturbing the main router’s settings.
if you turn off b/g which is a part of 802.11n, then you have just killed your range on your n network. Try walking away from your n router with your laptop with and without b/g turned on.
Using smartconfig you either send your WPA key in the clear across the WLAN or you have to enter an AES key which was stored in the device at factory time.
For the next version it would be nice if ipv6 was supported as well, TI already has 6lowpan implemented so IPv6 should not be too hard and you don’t want to replace you expensive lightbulbs because you are moving your WLAn to ipv6 ..
wish they had a price for the other modules and an eventual single order price of said models
Some information what packages will be available?
I’m no package expert but the datasheet is available on the TI page, and the only package on it is the type that has all pins underneath, the maker unfriendly kind of package. Not BGA but not hand solderable either.
Slightly off-topic but does anyone else have problems with the video scrubbers not working on TI videos. I can’t fast forward or go back on any of the videos hosted by TI.
videodownloadhelper worked just fine on this webpage: download to a local file, then use your favorite video player, say vlc.
but the only way to configure this is a smartphone (or pc in the future)?
any provisions to configure it trough the actual device?
Anyone else have the “unavailable” displayed on the TI estore page for the CC3000 Booster Pack?
No ad-hoc?
Interesting but that CC3000 module really isn’t hobbyist friendly, no matter what the retail price becomes, if it becomes a retail item at low volume numbers. This device meant for a production line is going to require carrier of some sort to make using is practical for most hobbyists. Yea it could be used dead bug style, but that wouldn’t be very rugged. As it is,it’s interest, but not yet very exciting. I’d like to see how they build a decent performing transceiver inside those small modules.
The CC3000 can be configured through the microcontroller connected to it. No issue there
$10 isn’t all that great of a price … Bunnie was getting the USB RTL WiFi adapters in the Chumby for around $5/ (which yes, requires a micro with USB Host), and the cost of several other SPI-communicating solutions was closer to $8/ (and still required huge quantities)
The module in the Chumby requires a full Wi-Fi and TCP/IP stack, which Linux on the Chumby provides. This is more like the modules from Roving Networks or equivalent to the Wiznet chips but for Wi-Fi.
$10 a piece? Same price as USB Wifi chip + USB host chip? sounds like a bargain ….
Good luck in finding someone to invest $10,000 and then sell these at their cost. Hackers would be pissed of if they tried to see a 1% profit :(
If you could make it into a breakout for $20 each you could Kickstart this so hard.
Now just make an 802.11n version already!
ugh, looks like a qfn pack. It maybe $10 for the chip but it will be at least $50 for a pre-assembled board from sparkfun.
So it does less and is more expensive than a $20 TP link 703 with an embedded openwrt ?
No thanks
Is the TP link 13.5 mm X 16.5 mm X 2.00 mm? And it looks like Avnet will be selling it for less than $15 https://avnetexpress.avnet.com/store/em/EMController/_/A-5004123214091?action=part&catalogId=500201&langId=-1&storeId=500201
But you are right, it doesn’t run openwrt as it’s not meant for router applications . You shouldn’t get it if that’s what you were expecting.
seems like you should look at what you can do with the TPlink. For those 5 more dollars you have 4Mo rom 32Mo ram, ethernet, USB2, embedded OS and of course WIFI.
Regarding the physical dimension, I would be surprised that your finished project does less than 20x 20. Remember you need some input, output, processing, power …
can’t put a tp in my pocket
are you retarded? or doll size?
13.5 mm X 16.5 mm X 2.00 mm
hmm maybe you are American and cant convert milimeters into furlongs?
13.5 x 16.5 x 2.00 mm is for the TI module.
TP-LINK wr703n size is 57 x 57 x 18 mm.
Grow up rasz.
All this just to make a tiny temperature logger capable of WiFI?
All this just to make a simple hd44780 display show some text over wifi?
All this just to make a WiFi enabled RC-Car?
All this just to make a Smartphone-connected blood pressure meter?
Yes, one could go the overkill route. But if youre already designing a circuit, why not just integrate a tiny chip on it with some passives around it?
Apples, meet oranges. Oranges,… apples.
Compare and contrast yourselves, because *he* obviously can’t.
(I work for roving):
http://rovingnetworks.com/Roving_Network_Modules
Uart or SPI interface. Built-in soft-AP mode, adhoc, ftp, ….
If you get the SDK, no external micro is required. Can write internal apps for it.
In sleep mode only consumes 4uA.
The RN modules are still at minimum $35+ dollars from the usual warehouses, though.
Yeah, but these CC3000 modules aren’t FCC’ed, whereas RN’s are. The existing FCC’ed.CC3000 FCC’ed modules from LS are in the $27 range and I’m not sure that Murata has priced theirs yet. Plus there’s more passives-dust that you have to sprinkle around a bare CC3000 as well as all of the antenna matching that you have to do, whereas the RN is much closer to ready-to-go. Plus RNs are easier to solder by hand over bare CC3000s (plus all of the other glue you have to tack on around it).
It does still look like it comes in cheaper by almost a third, but it’s hard to say yet if one is clearly better for most applications over the other. Both LS and Murata have had their own CC3000-based modules out for a number of months, so go see for yourself. Eval modules on a breakout are in the $50 range.
4th point on the datasheet: “FCC, IC, and CE certified with a chip antenna”
Thanks for pointing that out!
I’ll have to agree, don’t see why the news post makes such a big deal about it … by the time it’s on a module it won’t be any cheaper for singles than what Rovin and Microchip already have (also wr703n is interesting for high power/bandwidth).
Wifi speakers anyone? Maybe it is time to work out an open audio over wifi protocal.
Good choice if you will be buying by volume. This one will work for wholesale buyers.
If it can be stuck into a small box, speak RS232 on one end and WiFi on the other end – hello WiFi for 1980’s micro computers.
+1 on the retro- tacular, wifi enabled antique…..
a nice hack ..
CC3000 is $10 each (for 1K unit order)
WR703N is $10 each (for 1 unit order)
Where is a WR-703N for $10? Because I will buy a few right now.
any chinese friend working or living around?
get a guy who can read and type chinese, then check Taobao.com (a chinese version of ebuy). Then u can find wr703N.
Apples Oranges.
Also the wr703n cost at least $15…if you’re willing to wait 3 months for shipment from china.
Nice idea, but with that footprint, about the only chance we’ll have at hobbyist-friendly modules is to wait for various obscure manufacturers in China to produce the reference design in a DIP module format and sell them on eBay. Not that I’m complaining about that if the final price is somewhere around $15 or less.
Very unlikely for $15, maybe not even for $20 by the end of the year for a DIP plug-in. Even for $25 I still think that they’d be a deal mounted. $20 for a SMT module with side-terminations and a decent PCB antenna would be fine by me, like those $5 BT modules that are out there now.
internet of things? for the IOT, the key parameter is current consumption. this wifi thing is 5 uA in shutdown mode, 100 mA in rx mode and 200 mA in tx mode. No way to power that from a battery.
802.15.4 is still a better choice. Lower consumption, scheduled transceiver activity or data pull model, all of this is a must have for an IOT device.
Certainly not from a coin cell, but from some other battery types it’s clearly possible — there are already hundreds of millions of devices that do. It’s also not universal that everyone thinks that IoT means “battery operated” either. There are plenty of Internet-able things that have access to line power and/or are rechargeable.
Some systems will even be combos of 802.15.4 and/or BLE/ANT and/or 802.11 and/or 802.3 depending on exactly where they are in the food chain.
talking about low power ..TI’s products are good.
It’s worth noting that it doesn’t have an antenna. Proper antenna design and impedance matching requires trial and error, experience, or expensive software/hardware (usually come combination of the previous)
Reality: Nobody will use these at a 10000 minimum unless there is a market for them, and a SoC that only does 802.11b/g is too inferior and expensive for consumer markets where CDMA/GSM/EDGE/802.11N/BT basebands have about the same cost to quantity. These are only different because there is less legal and trademark prerequisites(unless TI NDAs the stack interface like they do with their ARM SoCs…
In the hardware development world, saving development time can be as valuable as reducing BOM cost totals, if not more. And just because TI is only offering the chip in 10,000 quantities (eventually), that doesn’t mean a huge part of their purchasing market won’t come from distributors like Digikey, etc.
Look at the other offerings that are in the new “CC” lineup — their ANT chip is aimed squarely at low-power device networks. Sometimes WIFI is a prerequisite for an application though (user interface), hence the CC3000.
tl;dr —-
“Nobody will use these at a 10000 minimum unless there is a market for them…”
I’m sure TI has done their market research.
this is what used android mobiles are for… bluetooth module on arduino and you instantly get a wifi shield, sd card shield, accelerometers& gyros, gps, gsm shield and more processing power than you need for a tiny fraction of real shields cost
In two out of five RIR regions there is no more IPv4 available…
New products that don’t support IPv6 in 2013… Total FAIL.
I thought the same thing.. but if you think about it some more.. the devices these things are going to do into will be inside a NAT or whatever. IPv6 being available isn’t a reason for IPv4 to disappear as IPv4 is perfectly fine for a lot of applications.
Just got approved for a sample request. Let’s see what I can do with this baby :) Will be hard to get it working though, particularly because of its package.
I was able to get a sample of this so I made a layout & breakout board. A zip of the Eagle files are here: http://www.centerblack.com/downloads/CC3000.zip
I have seen your CC3000 breakout board on the internet:
http://www.centerblack.com/
It looks similar with the one from:
http://hackaday.com/2013/01/27/a-breakout-board-for-a-tiny-wifi-chip/
Have yu consider to sell such a board?
Yea I’ve had a few people email and ask the same question.
Once I’ve tested the PCB and have details on what the cost will be per board for components and assembly, I’ll do a kickstarter and see if there’s enough interest.
The Avnet Wi-go is Arduino form factor, but comes with a much more powerful Cortex M0+ based MCU. Along with wi-Fi you get an accelerometer, magnetometer, 2MB of serial flash, and did I mention it’s battery powered?
LOL, $10@1000units for cc3000 not really good bargain for hobbyist.
communication through SPI interface that means you needs another microcontroller, I still stick to ElectricImp which is better comes with 6 multipurpose (analog, gpio, serial, i2c, spi…) pins, 1 tiny module do all the basic job within 6 pins and if you needs more pins then only attach to micro-controller. it just $24 for 1 unit :)
a TP-Link TL-WR703N router ($20 in my country) is good for me too, there are unused gpio pin and serial interface hidden within…
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Will likely be back to get more. Thank you